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When given an option between blaming the individual and blaming multinational corporations, I tend to blame the latter
by vipermark7 5y ago
When given an option between blaming the individual and blaming multinational corporations, I tend to blame the latter
- zz865 5y agoYeah everyone does, which is why those big oil companies are causing global warming but not me.
- TheSpiceIsLife 5y agoWell, you didn’t wage a massive climate change denial / disinformation campaign for decades, did you? I don’t have any options with regard to how I get to and from work nor how I hear and cool my home. Is that directly your fault, or am I right to place a fair chunk of the blame on the source of that denial?
- arodyginc 5y agoYou can't cause any real harm to nature without help from corps. But they can, by just setting up an oil drill leaking into the ocean.
- pb7 5y agoThey would drill for oil nobody wants? I don’t buy that. It’s a two way transaction between supply and demand.
- gruez 5y agoBut they wouldn't be setting up oil drills if there wasn't consumer demand.
- toiletfuneral 5y agoConsumers don’t demand oil, they just need to get their kids to school. Capital has decided the most profitable way is with oil.
- nitwit005 5y agoYou're greatly underestimating what people can manage on their own. Even ancient peoples managed plenty of harm to nature. Deforested whole regions, wiped out species, damaged farmland with irrigation, etc. Now there are vastly more of us, and we have a lot better tools to do damage with.
- zapataband1 5y agoI also love the 'But you can 'vote' with your dollar!' crowd We have glass bottles, we have compostable plastic, a company is not incentivized to lose profit by switching to more expensive alternatives until it becomes illegal to not do so and they have more lobbying power than any of us.
- sethammons 5y agoNo single raindrop believes it is to be blamed for the flood
- TheSpiceIsLife 5y agoThis analogy highlights where the problem lies. Floods are prevented, or mitigated, not by single raindrops, but by chaotic systems on a much larger scale, and / or infrastructure projects raindrops have little to no ability to action. Humans need leaders to rally behind, and what we’ve had for too long, and likely will have for longer still, is wet dishcloths masquerading as leaders.
- tmalsburg2 5y agoYou're not given the option, though.
- TaylorAlexander 5y agoIdk, I don’t think it matters who we blame. The problem isn’t the multinational corporations that do this, it’s the system that lets them. We need a better system.
- dfxm12 5y agoWhich is the system at fault here? Capitalism?
- beprogrammed 5y ago"Economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and the creation of goods or services for profit" no not capitalism, governance.
- __MatrixMan__ 5y agoNot sure that presenting a definition of capitalism gets it off the hook here. When you don't have a remote third party (the capitalist) involved in your transactions, things are simpler. You can just ask: is the person I'm doing business with creating more problems than they solve? And then not do business with them if the answer is yes. If you acknowledge property rights that justify the involvement of capitalists in your transaction, you now have to also ask the same question of them and weigh those answers against the first. It's much harder to figure out who's agenda you're furthering with your money--so most people just don't bother. Both parties blame this abstraction that hangs over their business and neither takes responsibility for its consequences. The invisible hand ends up being a scapegoat and nothing changes.
- wongarsu 5y agoCaptialism (as implemented in many Western countries) can deal with these things, it just doesn't by default. We successfully solved ozone depletion, we made significant progress with acid rain, we got rid of leaded gasoline, our rivers are reasonably clean, ... Reasonable legislation that sets the right incentives works. But it's difficult to get passed when entrenched interests are against it. The problem isn't capitalism, the problem is the industry influence on politics that prevents reasonable legislation.
- rsynnott 5y agoIn this case, it’s the secret third option; the state. This problem can only be solved by regulation; no market force is going to make it go away.